Just like many of the features on this forum, you get to choose whether the reputation system is valuble to you.
I know I was on CD for a year before I even learned what those little dots meant. Until then I though they were just random sayings that showed up when you rolled over them. And they were in these cool Christmas colors... Some were gray, some were red, some were green. Very cute. Then one day I clicked on my own dots - boy was I surprized! Here were these fun little comments telling me when I had been naughty and when I had been nice.
I love giving reputation - almost always good, because I believe in rewarding the good and pm-ing the not so good if I've been offended or strongly disagree with a point made. The only time I've used the negative rep was for a post that was sooo rude that it was actually removed a short time later by a moderator. That was also before I knew what moderators were there for. Ahh the life of a CD Forum newbie.
